Coral Point Diving, located in the Dominican Republic, is creating opportunities for divers to act as citizen scientists in an effort to protect local coral reefs.

“Powerful, endangered, beauty, diverse, threatened, urgency.”
Those words come to mind for Natalia Gonzalez, Coral Point Diving’s Manager and Instructor when she thinks about the ocean.

“Thanks to the PADI Aware Foundation Community Grant,” Gonzalez says, ”we can make a big difference for the Coral Point Diving Reef Monitoring Project and our community.” This new initiative hopes to be the start of a larger plan to preserve and strengthen “the coral reefs in Bayahibe and the rest of the Caribbean.”

How does the Dive Center plan to begin this action?

In addition to collecting data about coral health on the local reefs and generating reports, a successful outcome for the Coral Point Diving Reef Monitoring Project would also involve “effective communication of findings, the discovery of workable solutions.”

“It can be both professionally and personally fulfilling to collect data successfully, produce high-caliber reports, and aid in preserving coral reefs.” Gonzalez says. The commitment of Coral Point Diving project team members “to coral conservation will create a long-lasting data-gathering model and increase upcoming divers’ capacity to participate in these initiatives.”